Oracle Cuts Thousands of Jobs Across Sales, Engineering, Security (theregister.com) 46
bobthesungeek76036 shares a report from the Register: Oracle laid off thousands of employees on Tuesday as it ramps spending on AI infrastructure projects internally and with major technology partners. The layoffs were carried out via email, according to copies of the message viewed by Business Insider. The email told affected workers they would be terminated immediately and to provide a personal email for follow-up.
The cuts echo a TD Cowen forecast earlier this year, when the investment bank questioned how Oracle would finance its expanding AI datacenter buildout and suggested headcount reductions could reach 20,000 to 30,000. It is not clear how many employees were notified on Tuesday, but one screenshot that purports to show the number of internal Slack users showed a drop of 10,000 overnight.
[...] Oracle employs about 162,000 people, with 58,000 of those in the US and approximately 104,000 internationally. If the rumored cuts of 30,000 are correct, it would amount to 18 percent of the company's workforce. According to posts from Oracle workers on LinkedIn, the cuts were spread through multiple departments around the country, with employees in Kansas, Tennessee, and Texas taking to social media to say they were among those chopped. "This news didn't seem to affect stock price," adds bobthesungeek76036. "ORCL is up 6% for the day."
The cuts echo a TD Cowen forecast earlier this year, when the investment bank questioned how Oracle would finance its expanding AI datacenter buildout and suggested headcount reductions could reach 20,000 to 30,000. It is not clear how many employees were notified on Tuesday, but one screenshot that purports to show the number of internal Slack users showed a drop of 10,000 overnight.
[...] Oracle employs about 162,000 people, with 58,000 of those in the US and approximately 104,000 internationally. If the rumored cuts of 30,000 are correct, it would amount to 18 percent of the company's workforce. According to posts from Oracle workers on LinkedIn, the cuts were spread through multiple departments around the country, with employees in Kansas, Tennessee, and Texas taking to social media to say they were among those chopped. "This news didn't seem to affect stock price," adds bobthesungeek76036. "ORCL is up 6% for the day."
Stop blaming AI (Score:3)
These were humans that laid other humans off. End of story.
Re:Stop blaming AI (Score:5, Interesting)
Oracle has poured money into AI. Into the datacenter side even, you know the side the hyperscalers who don't make a profit selling to the AI model companies who lose money selling the use of their models for less than it costs them to run them so those customers can also lose money.
It is everything to do with AI. The big silver lining of the whole AI bubble is that it just might destroy Oracle for the good of all mankind.
This is different than people using say Claude Code - spending $200 to get $2000 worth of compute is probably pretty good for as long as the subsidy chain lasts.
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that it just might destroy Oracle for the good
One can hope, but perhaps they'll get a bail out.
Only 100+ H1B worker visas requested in 2026 (Score:5, Interesting)
Oracle has asked for over 100 H1B visas in 2026.
If they are laying off in the USA, they should be prevented from requesting any H1B or other visas for 4 years for themselves, parent companies, child companies, spin off companies, ....
Re: Only 100+ H1B worker visas requested in 2026 (Score:3)
The loophole is they write up listing for positions that require skills that the citizens they are letting go don't have. It's obvious companies abuse the visa system, but guess who really pulls the strings in government.
Magic skills (Score:2)
The magic elusive skills way to "never find" a "qualified US worker" needs to be closed for common positions which have thousands of US citizens working.
Supply and demand
Company - "It's extremely hard and rare to find a worker with skill XYZ"
Company - "We cannot find a us citizen with that skill even though we looked for X months"
Company - "We found a 'qualified' worker 'by chance' just graduating from a US university"
Company - "To be fair we will pay them at the 50% of the prevailing wage for an entry leve
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Oracle has asked for over 100 H1B visas in 2026.
If they are laying off in the USA, they should be prevented from requesting any H1B or other visas for 4 years for themselves, parent companies, child companies, spin off companies, ....
That doesn't make sense, unless there is an overlap in skills. E.g. why should laying off support staff mean that you can't hire AI experts from the rest of the world, to give one example? As long as there are real checks for salary levels- you're not doing this to save money - why should this be a problem at all?
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The big silver lining of the whole AI bubble is that it just might destroy Oracle for the good of all mankind.
I'm pretty sure two more shitty companies would take their place.
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Well, the humans who are doing the laying off are themselves "blaming" AI, so...
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Re:Stop blaming AI (Score:5, Informative)
They cut 20% of their staff (Score:2, Interesting)
You don't just cut 20% of your staff like it's nothing. Companies are firing employees left and right to free up capital. This is actually by design it's what high interest rates are designed to do.
If inflation was under control a lot of these layoffs wouldn't be happening because companies would just borrow at low interest rates.
Are you sure about that? (Score:2)
Resistance is futile, you will be hallucinated.
In related news ... (Score:4, Funny)
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Yeah, actually i do, that means taxes are way, way too low.
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Oracle ... (Score:1)
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The handwriting has been on the wall for years now.
Ah, not yet and likely not for a very long time... as long as Oracle customers keeping stepping into the trap.
The Oracle Licensing Model: A Perpetual Revenue Engine Funding Larry Ellison's Expanding Empire
Larry Ellison has built one of the most resilient revenue machines in enterprise technology. Oracle's licensing structure — characterized by complex, recurring fees, mandatory support contracts, and aggressive audit practices — creates what industry analysts have long described as a **"licensin
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I copy/pasted your comment into a few AI chats. GPT-5 thinks is mostly human. Haiku 3.5 thinks your response is blended AI because of some typos. Grok thinks it's AI all the way. Huzzah!
Re: why is anyone at Oracle still (Score:3)
Turning to AIs for a ruling on who is human and who is not is an interesting inversion of the Turing test.
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Because Oracle makes money hand over fist and pays well. Sure everyone will be fucked if OpenAI tanks, but in that case most of the tech sector will be tanking, too, and jobs wonâ(TM)t be safe at any employer. Might as well collect a fat salary at Oracle before the shit show starts.
Who needs employees if you can have AI agents? (Score:2)
Next up : Who needs Oracle if you can have AI?
Re:Who needs employees if you can have AI agents? (Score:5, Insightful)
Fixed that for you
Bad stuff happening for Oracle? (Score:5, Interesting)
The college I used to work for was defrauded of a fairly large sum of money by Oracle.
They had purchased our director of IT who recommended a "new product" they had for handling basically all the accounting, grading and assorted other functions that a college could need.
After something like 2 years of promising "next quarter" they never delivered anything and when Our IT director was fired from the college he was suddenly working for Oracle.
Revolving Door Corruption (Score:2)
Same at the old place I used to work for. Oracle somehow won the bid for an ERP accounting solution and migration work and it's about to go down the same way also. It is going to be a shit-show when they try to migrate from mainframe Lawson software solution. They supposedly are trying to hire an internal developer for account with mainframe and C# skills for Oracle ERP accounting. That is going to be a no-find position and require Oracle contract development hours and a whole team instead.
The Cyber Se
The news didn't affect the stock price ? (Score:3)
It's up 6%. That's no coincidence. Investors tend to like reduction in expenses. They might not like what follows, if Oracle's AI bets don't pan out.
It's not about AI (Score:4, Funny)
Nobody wants Oracle products & pesky lawyers any more. AI ain't gonna save you. Sayonara
In the AI future you will work harder for less (Score:2, Insightful)
Mmm. There's a paradox. Not sure that has a parallel in the history of automation.
AI Brain Fry [hbr.org]
AI jobs (Score:2)
Oh, this is why the project stalled. (Score:2)
Now, I wouldn't be surprised if the people we were talking to about it last month are now gone themselves. I may recommend they sue Oracle to get their money back.
Re: (Score:2)
Why on earth would someone willingly implement a new Oracle system at this point in time?
Fired via email? Classy. (Score:2)
At least back when I worked at Gateway they had a team of henchmen in black suits come around to tell you the news, then stand over you while you emptied your desk before escorting you out of the building. This is so... impersonal.
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Frankly I'd prefer the email.
It doesn't require so many employees... (Score:2)
Sell Sun and Java then (Score:3)
BTW, is Sam Altman by any chance related to Larry Ellison ?
Oblig: One Raging Asshole Called Larry Ellison (Score:2)